Total dishonesty this weekend with T1 Northern line trains between Epping and the City via Strathfield cut to every 30 minutes, and the trackwork alerts only say a "changed timetable" without mentioning the cut in frequency!

Here is my scathing feedback to TfNSW. Let's see what action they take:

The trackwork alerts page of the transportnsw.info site in woefully inadequate.

There is only a brief mention of T1 Northern Line trains running to a "changed timetable", but nowhere does it mention that the frequency of services has been reduced to an appalling, 19th century, 30 minute service, until you wander over to the trip planner.

Whilst there is trackwork between Strathfield and Central, thereby reducing the capacity, at least the trains could've been running every 15 minutes between Epping and Strathfield. All this talk of "More Trains, More Services" is simply talk when on weekends like this, the service level gets reduced so that nobody would bother to take public transport unless it was so necessary.

At least if the frequency is to be cut, the trackwork posters/alerts should read "Services frequency will be reduced from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes". This is bordering on dishonesty.

The same vague "Trains run to a changed timetable" message was used last week for all T5 services being cancelled after 7pm.

A changed timetable would imply to most people that there might be slightly different departure times (eg a few minutes earlier or later than normal), or different stopping patterns... not a halving of service frequency (every 2nd train cancelled) or the complete cut of all T5 services.

Last edited by andy_centralcoast on Sat Jul 14, 2018 2:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

andy_centralcoast wrote:The same vague "Trains run to a changed timetable" message was used last week for all T5 services being cancelled after 7pm.

To a reasonable person, a changed timetable would imply different departure times, or different stopping patterns, not a halving of services or a complete cut of all services.

Agree. It should read "T5 Schofields services will not be operating after 7 pm from Leppington. Change at Granville for connecting services" or something like that.

Yes, exactly. Much more helpful to customers than the mysterious "trains run to a changed timetable".

For Epping trains this weekend they could simply say "Services between Epping and Central via Strathfield are reduced to once every 30 minutes." For added detail they could include "Services that normally depart Epping at 25 past and 55 past the hour have been cancelled."

I wonder how the frequency reduction is affecting crowding this weekend, especially for Eastwood which also lost Central Coast trains stopping there. I'm surprised it wasn't added back this weekend to make up for the local service reduction.

swtt wrote:Agree. It should read "T5 Schofields services will not be operating after 7 pm from Leppington. Change at Granville for connecting services" or something like that.

Yes, exactly. Much more helpful to customers than the mysterious "trains run to a changed timetable".

For Epping trains this weekend they could simply say "Services between Epping and Central via Strathfield are reduced to once every 30 minutes." For added detail they could include "Services that normally depart Epping at 25 past and 55 past the hour have been cancelled."

I wonder how the frequency reduction is affecting crowding this weekend, especially for Eastwood which also lost Central Coast trains stopping there. I'm surprised it wasn't added back this weekend to make up for the local service reduction.

I wonder whether the government has had any input into this changed attitude, or is it just an arrogant TfNSW dropping the ball, where customer service isn't their priority, compared with the service deliverers who are at the coal-face? It's telling that this has happened as TfNSW has taken over the transport agency information.

Unfortunately crew displacement issues from the disruptions have caused one of the half-hourly Epping services to be cancelled, making a 60 minute gap between services on the T1 Northern Line between Epping and Strathfield.

I guess the mistake of T8 Macarthur via Sydenham trains stopping at Kingsgrove forcing those trains to share tracks with all stops Revesby via Airport trains is now the Revesby trains are running late. They were separated from the rest of the network this weekend only running between Revesby & Central P23.

Frosty wrote:I guess the mistake of T8 Macarthur via Sydenham trains stopping at Kingsgrove forcing those trains to share tracks with all stops Revesby via Airport trains is now the Revesby trains are running late. They were separated from the rest of the network this weekend only running between Revesby & Central P23.

Someone did realise this as Kingsgrove started getting skipped on most of these services.

Unfortunately crew displacement issues from the disruptions have caused one of the half-hourly Epping services to be cancelled, making a 60 minute gap between services on the T1 Northern Line between Epping and Strathfield.

They should let CCN services to make additional stops to fill the gap.

Unfortunately crew displacement issues from the disruptions have caused one of the half-hourly Epping services to be cancelled, making a 60 minute gap between services on the T1 Northern Line between Epping and Strathfield.

They should let CCN services to make additional stops to fill the gap.

Unfortunately crew displacement issues from the disruptions have caused one of the half-hourly Epping services to be cancelled, making a 60 minute gap between services on the T1 Northern Line between Epping and Strathfield.

They should let CCN services to make additional stops to fill the gap.

They should fire all of the non customer service minded managers who could only be bothered with running trains on time rather than help stranded customers (and alps have the initiative to request train transpositions)

All the skipped stops and terminating early does seem like they are more interested in getting trains back to timetable rather than thinking about how to best minimise delays to customers who are not just directly travelling between 2 major stations.

Creative ideas like an ECRL shuttle service may have worked well today, rather than just skipping those stops on every late train coming through.

Some stations were getting skipped by so many consecutive services that there was over an hour wait for a train that stopped.

andy_centralcoast wrote:All the skipped stops and terminating early does seem like they are more interested in getting trains back to timetable rather than thinking about how to best minimise delays to customers who are not just directly travelling between 2 major stations.

Creative ideas like an ECRL shuttle service may have worked well today, rather than just skipping those stops on every late train coming through.

Some stations were getting skipped by so many consecutive services that there was over an hour wait for a train that stopped.

Upon major delays like this, everything should just be switched over to run all stops where there are trains running, to minimise inconvenience - at least people are still moving, and not stuck on a platform (in the cold as well).

Having a great time currently waiting here in 7 degrees at Bomaderry to meet people on a service now running nearly 2 hours late and 4 hours after leaving Sydney. Hope they enjoyed the day at least. No wonder we drive. What a joke.

Am I being overly critical that the management of Sydney/NSW Trains just seems to be getting worse? What happened to sectorisation? It appears that more frequent than not, a breakdown or incident on a particular line has an impact on other sectors, which are supposedly separate.